Lord Bach: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, very much for securing this debate. I thank all noble Lords who have spoken, particularly my noble friend Lord Smith of Finsbury for his excellent maiden speech. We will hear from him often in this House. He had a particularly successful parliamentary career in another place and will no doubt continue it here. He was too modest to say that he has bagged the Munros—I think that is the right expression—during his career, along with his namesake, the late John Smith on a number of occasions. I think that my noble friend Lord Howarth was also his companion on a number of occasions. I thank my noble friend Lord Smith very much for his speech.
	I am afraid that I have very little time now to sum up the debate—I have about as much time as the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, had. There is a lot I would like to say. If I do not answer all the questions that have been asked, I will of course write to noble Lords with the answers.
	The Act will for the first time ensure that people can enjoy, as a right, access on foot to areas of open country and registered common land in England and Wales, including some 750,000 hectares of land where there has previously been no statutory right of access. This brings access to some of England's most beautiful countryside which people have sought for well over a century. This great new freedom makes vast tracts of our finest countryside the delight of many and not the preserve of the few. Our target was to open all access land in England by the end of 2005. As my noble friend Lord Smith of Finsbury said, we will be implementing the final two regions on 31 October, two months ahead of our target date.
	The feedback that we are getting from places where the right has been in force for some time is that the new right has been welcomed with enthusiasm. The Peak District National Park Authority has reported that people are enjoying the right to walk in new areas, while landowners who have experienced the new right in action are finding that there are none of the major problems that some people predicted. I am particularly pleased to report that the Local Access Forum, which represents landowners and farmers as well as recreational users, supports that view. I now turn to answer some of the very good points that were raised during the debate.
	We were praised for the allocation that has been made to local authorities under the access management grant scheme and asked what our plans were when the £5.2 million that has been allocated up until the end of March 2007 from access management planning and on-site management and infrastructure runs out. I can tell the House that we will be reviewing the effectiveness of the scheme before deciding whether to extend the scheme for a further year. I hope that the results of that will be known by the middle of next year.
	I was invited by the noble Lord, Lord Judd, to encourage action about problems on the ground with barbed wire. The grant scheme to which I referred enables access authorities to do that, including funding for a rapid reaction service to deal exactly with that sort of problem.
	I was asked a lot of questions about maps and the website and many noble Lords said that the website could be improved. I will take that back and see what improvements can be made and whether they can be made soon. We are minded not to review the maps again during the 10-year period because there will be a statutory review at the end of that time. The agency has only just completed an enormous mapping exercise involving some 936,000 hectares of access land. There should now be a period free from consideration of mapping issues to allow everyone—landowners and walkers alike—to get used to the new rights of access and address any practical management issues that may arise.
	In answer to the noble Baroness, there were 3,173 appeals of which 2,347 were upheld—74 per cent—and 826 were dismissed.
	I have to end my response in one minute. We have reached a very important stage in the implementation of this new right of access. This debate is extremely timely. The Government are pleased in general with the progress that we have made in implementing this new and precious right. We are convinced of the opportunities and benefits that greater access to our countryside will bring for both walkers and local communities. This Act represents a considerable achievement by this Government which will be enjoyed and used by people for a long time to come.